Many go hungry in Delaware County

Monday

Apr 7, 2014 at 12:01 AMApr 7, 2014 at 8:44 AM

Overall economic statistics for Delaware County could hardly be rosier. Household income is higher there, and poverty lower, than anywhere else in the state. But in Delaware and other affluent communities across the country, wealth often masks need.

Rita Price, The Columbus Dispatch

Overall economic statistics for Delaware County could hardly be rosier. Household income is higher there, and poverty lower, than anywhere else in the state.

Brad Draper knows how much — and how little — that means in his line of work.

In Delaware and other affluent communities across the country, wealth often masks need. High-income tiers and low unemployment rates can skew the demographic snapshots and divert attention from families who struggle to buy groceries.

“There are actually more people eligible for food-pantry assistance in Delaware than the entire population of some very impoverished counties that we serve in Appalachian Ohio,” Draper said, explaining his agency’s plans for a large food pantry in the city of Delaware.

The Mid-Ohio Foodbank conducted comparisons of pantry eligibility and available food and found that Delaware County has the biggest disconnect in its service area.

The Delaware County Hunger Alliance said that nearly 18,000 residents — 13 percent of the population — meet the federal government’s definition for being food insecure. About 24,000 are eligible for pantry services, which the state sets at 200 percent of the federal poverty level.

“We do a great job of highlighting all of the good things that happen in our county, but we do have needs as well,” said Barb Lyon of the United Way of Delaware County. “Our goal is to increase access to good nutrition and food at the right time, for the right reasons, for anyone who might need it.”

She said the county’s wealthy suburban south and rural north “mask our needs a little differently.”

Draper said officials are negotiating a lease for a storefront that will open “as soon as possible.” In the meantime, the agency has a campaign to raise $1 million for the pantry, which would be its fifth.

Lutheran Social Services is central Ohio’s largest pantry provider, with pantries on the South and West sides of Columbus, in Lancaster in Fairfield County and in Caldwell in Noble County, in southeastern Ohio. The agency also has mobile pantries, which have been serving Delaware County with stops in Ashley and Sunbury since July.

Draper said the new pantry will work closely with those already in Delaware. It expects to serve 1,000 families a month, doubling the number of pantry visits now reported.

“The demand is there,” he said.

It will be similar to the agency’s Westside pantry in Columbus, which offers lots of fresh produce and allows clients to choose their items, shopping as if they were in a grocery.

Betty Knapp-Miller, 79, recently had to turn to the Westside pantry for help. Her son and his two teenage children moved in, more than doubling the food needs for Knapp-Miller and her husband. Visiting the pantry occasionally, she said, “is about the only way we can get by.”

Still, she strolled the pantry cheerfully last week. “I’m not one to poor-mouth, because the good Lord takes care of me,” she said.

Knapp-Miller said she was not surprised to learn about the Delaware pantry.

“There’s a lot of high income in Hilliard, where I live, too,” she said. “But situations happen."